1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of vehicles display units such as an aircraft display unit that provide information to the vehicle operator such as a pilot of an aircraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
A remotely-operate vehicle such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) presents unique problems to those who operate the vehicle via a communications network. For a pilot flying the UAV located on the other side of the Earth and a communications network comprised of multiple satellites, a communication time delay of at least two seconds or more is not uncommon; occasionally, the time delay could be more than five seconds.
To adapt to this challenge, pilots have been known to plot a trail “breadcrumbs” ahead of the UAV as a means of flying the UAV. Analogous to a flight plan comprised of waypoints, a manual selection of breadcrumbs on an electronic map may be used to navigate the UAV to its desired location. Data representative of the breadcrumbs (i.e., waypoints) may be transmitted to the UAV via the network which, upon receipt, may track the flight plan comprised of the breadcrumbs with the assistance of a navigation system, a flight management system (“FMS”), and/or autopilot. The FMS may monitor the flight along the flight plan, receive current latitude/longitude information from the navigation system, and issue commands to the autopilot to maintain the UAV's flight along the flight plan.
Besides flying along the flight path, feedback of the flight's progress may be provided to the pilot via the network through the use of position reports and video images. Because of the time delay, however, the position of the UAV is a past position, and the scene outside the UAV shown in the video images is a past scene. Manually flying a UAV based upon past positions and past scenes presents a challenge to a pilot because he or she may have to anticipate ahead of schedule when to begin a maneuver, estimate how much flight control input is needed to perform the maneuver, and anticipate ahead of schedule when to complete the maneuver.
Manually flying an aircraft by anticipation and estimation is not typical of the flying skills learned by a pilot through years of pilot training and flight experience. Instead, the pilot learns that the aircraft typically reacts immediately to changes of flight control input. That is, the pilot is used to seeing an immediate change of the scene outside the aircraft when he or she performs a maneuver. The presence of the inherent time delay when flying a UAV is not conducive to a pilot's normal application of flying skills because an action of the pilot does not lead to an immediate reaction of the UAV.